THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 373 



If we are to maintain the highest type of permanent agricul- 

 ture for Illinois, dairying should be a permanent feature. As a 

 proof of this, it is only necessary to take a glance at some of the 

 countries of Europe. In no other country does everything give 

 place to dairying as in Denmark or Holland, and in no other 

 country in the world are the farmers so prosperous and self-re- 

 specting. 



The Danish farmer is feeding our corn and oil cake, on 

 higher-priced land than ours, and selling his butter on the Brit- 

 ish market in competition with ours. Let us see what the result 

 of this is on our American agriculture. The grain farmer, rais- 

 ing the common crops with the ordinary rotation of corn, oats, 

 wheat and clover, selling the grain only and plowing under the 

 clover, which is supposed to keep up the supply of nitrogen, 

 would remove from the soil, in grain alone, in four years, fer- 

 tility per acre as follows : 





Crop 





Yield 

 per acre 



Market value 



Total 





Phosphorus 



Potassium 



Corn . 

 Oats .. 

 Wheat 



55 bu. 



50 bu. 



25 bu. 



value for four years 

 ige value of fertihty 



$1.12 

 .66 

 72 



$0.63 



.48 



■39 



$1.50 



acre 



$1.75 



1. 14 



I. II 



Total 

 Averc 



....$2.50 



removed per 



$4.00 

 . .$1.00 



On a well conducted, dairy farm, 70 pounds of butter may 

 be produced per acre, which would contain 42-100 of a cent's 

 worth of phosphorus and potassium. In other words, it would 

 take the dairy farmer, selling nothing but butter, 238 years to 

 remove as much value in fertility as the grain farmer would re- 

 move in one year, selling an average grain crop. This shows 

 exactly what we are doing in our trade with the Danes at the 

 present time. Which is better for American agriculture, to lose 

 this prosperity and fertility by selling our grain to the Danes, or 

 converting it ourselves into butter containing little or no fertility. 



